Daniel Hudson has made just nine starts since the beginning of the 2012 regular season due to elbow issues and is expected to miss a majority of the 2014 season while recovering from his second Tommy John reconstructive surgery in two years.

The Diamondbacks can get rid of the arbitration-eligible right-hander this winter by declining to tender him a contract. But that’s not in the club’s plans.

According to MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert, the Diamondbacks front office has begun negotiations on a deal for 2014 with Hudson, who made just over the league minimum this summer. “We’ve finally started kicking tires on something,” confirmed the 26-year-old starter on Wednesday night. “Hopefully we’ll get something done in the next few days or over the weekend. Obviously my wife and I have our roots set down here. We’d like to be here for the long run, and I’d like to have a long career with the Diamondbacks.”

Hudson, 26, owns a promising 3.68 career ERA and 1.209 career WHIP in 381 1/3 major league frames. It won’t cost more than $1 million for Arizona to keep him around and hope for a full, successful return.

The Oakland Athletics ballpark saga has dragged on for years and years and years. They’ve considered San Jose, Fremont and at least three locations in Oakland as potential new ballpark sites. The whole process has lasted almost as long as the Braves and Rangers played in their old parks before building new ones.

In the past several months the Athletics’ “stay in Oakland” plan has gained momentum. At one point the club thought it had an agreement to build a new place near Peralta/Laney College in downtown Oakland. There have been hiccups with that, so two other sites — Howard Terminal, favored by city officials — and the current Oakland Coliseum site have remained in play. There are pros and cons to each of these sites, as we have discussed in the past.

One consideration not mentioned before was mentioned by team president David Kaval yesterday: sea level rise due to climate change. From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Kaval mentioned twice that the Howard Terminal site would have to take into account sea-level rise and transportation concerns — and he said there have been conversations with the city and county and the Joint Powers Authority about developing the Coliseum site.

The Howard Terminal/Jack London Square area of Oakland has been identified as susceptible to dramatically increased flooding as a result of projected sea level rise due to climate change. On the other side of the bay both the San Francisco Giants and Golden State Warriors have had to consider sea level rise in their stadium/arena development plans. Now it’s the Athletics’ turn.

Fifteen of Major League Baseball’s 30 teams play in coastal areas and another five of them play near the Great Lakes. While some of our politicians don’t seem terribly concerned about it all, people and organizations who will have skin the game 10, 20 and 50 years from now, like the Oakland Athletics, are taking it into account.